The only survivor of the Mannington family was the eldest son. He had long, well-moulded features, a smooth and elegant gait, and heavy brows that struck handsome severity into a look that would have been clean and inoffensive otherwise.
He was dressed almost entirely in black, like the evil prince of a Disney flick, though Sinclair would be pressed to name a specific film. Most of the costume design in those things was uninspired and designed only to sell toys that wouldn’t have too many removable parts for six-year-olds to choke on.
The shirt was silk and the trousers loose and long, not a traditional suit but something more distinct and casual. It was tailored carefully to show off his muscular shoulders, but obscure the lower arms and do similarly from thigh to shin. At ankle and wrist, the hem pulled close, hinting to a medieval style.
Stripes of gold accented one cuff, gleamed in the placard and wound down one leg in a thin, glimmering chain of thread. Further chains hung from golden rings on his fingers and dangled from his ears. His eyes were dark but his lids were edged with liquid gold. He stared out with every attempt at dignity, head perfectly still, hands raised slightly from his sides, back straight and shoulders squared in defiance.
He was perfect. The rebel prince cast out. Atop the close-cropped hair on his head rested a crown of heavy metal, simple and moulded into latticed spikes, exquisitely gold-leafed, and ringed around the base with tiny sharp teeth that held it firmly in place in young master Mannington’s scalp.
If you looked closely, you would see the rest. The faint glimmers of blood in his hair. The imprint of chains against his wrists and ankles, underneath the cuffs. The position of his arms, casual and elegant for his pose, but maintained with sharp prop sticks enforcing a distance between his arm and his body inside each loose sleeve. The slightly bared teeth of a lip-lined mouth were to help him keep his jaw locked, preventing the spring-loaded box inside his mouth from giving out its sharpened contents before someone was ready and waiting to remove it for him.
So while most rainbow capitalism is sticking rainbows on things and pretending to be an ally, Budweiser’s UK branch is giving credit to trans activists, and explaining pride flag colors.
Budweiser is an inclusionist
What a weird and true thing to say! And I almost sounds like a joke but honestly I feel this tweet captures 90% of my feelings
And to actually credit Monica Helms and get the white stripe right? Like, if we are going to have companies at pride this is what I’d like to see. Professional looking marketing, credit to activists, research about the groups its marketing, and spreading further awareness.
So while it’s understandable that people are excited to see mainstream recognition, I think it’s important to also know that there is a reason that alcohol companies in particular tend to be “better” about learning about and reaching out to stigmatized or disadvantaged communities that other companies avoid or ignore:
It’s because industries like alcohol and tobacco know that marginalized communities that are subject to minority stress are much more likely to suffer from things like substance abuse and binge drinking - making them prime targets for companies whose #1 goal is selling more alcohol and making more money.
As@godlessacepointed out, advertising by alcohol companies isn’t directly comparable to other types of rainbow capitalism / queerwashed commercialism, because the products they are promoting are directly, actively harmful to the communities they are targeting.
When it comes to things like ace flags at Target, or Subaru advertising cars to lesbians, there is rarely any direct harm to the targeted consumer (other than whatever harms capitalism and commercialism as a whole may have on society). If I buy a Subaru or a polyester flag, I’m not immediately putting my health at risk.
But when it comes to companies advertising things like alcohol and tobacco (and later, vape products) to lesbians and gays - and later to groups like trans people and ace people - the products they want you to adopt are ones that can also be directly harmful to your health.
For those not as familiar with the relationship between alcohol/tobacco, advertising, and LGBTQ Communities, here’s some initial recommended reading that I was gathering for another post:
https://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/27/business/media/absolut-heralds-its-marketing-to-gay-consumers.html more on the history of how Absolut vodka marketed to LGBT communities - it’s a little pandering to Absolut but I think it still demonstrates how reaching out to LGBT (and ace) communities - and even hosting community events and fundraisers - is all about a clever brand strategy, not out of the goodness of their hearts.
https://www.autostraddle.com/sober-in-the-city-surviving-pride-without-liquor-236902/ - notes on how the entanglement of alcohol and Pride can be triggering and risky for alcoholics trying to stay sober. While not mentioned in this article, I think it’s worth mentioning that alcohol companies are often major sponsors at Pride (in order to profit, of course) with such an extensive presence that it’s often easier and sometimes cheaper to find booths selling alcohol that it is to find water.
Alcohol companies (along with over “vice industries” like tobacco companies) have a history of being the first to really enthusiastically include/exploit LGBTQ+ populations in their marketing campaigns, so I guess it doesn’t come as a surprise, but I definitely have mixed feelings about it and it’s definitely something that should be looked at critically.
Target is also selling ace flags in most of their larger locations (haven’t seen them in the smaller city target lines that don’t have the Bullseye’s playground section), so I guess that for better or for worse 2019 is officially the year that Asexuality really joined the capitalist-exploitation-at-pride party?
“Budweiser is also hosting several Pride events, including a three-day asexual event. The brand is partnering with asexual activist and model Yasmin Benoit to bring visibility to this part of the community.”
What the…? Is <a href=“https://tmblr.co/mZhD2ndLSdvHsoEN81fGvsw”>@yasminbenoit</a> aware of the concerns that some people might have about this?
I don’t really mind corporate sponsorship in general, but corporate sponsorship from alcohol companies scares me. That’s a public health problem. I’m a craft beer person myself and I know not to impugn people’s individual choices with respect to alcohol. But when you’re getting targeted advertising, statistically that’s going to cause problems for a lot of people.
Hard liquor companies have been advertising to LGBT people for a long time, and it certainly impacted the queer student group that I participated back in college. There was an awful lot of binge drinking, and for many it was a way of dealing with personal despair. It was for me too.
Studies show asexuals have a really high rate of teetotaling, and maybe that means we’ll be resilient to targeted alcohol advertising. But it also might mean that there’s that much more room for things to get worse.
yesterday my date made me promise to “not talk to any random russians this time” only for me to immediately become best friends with a kosovan gang member. saved on a technicality
after i successfully taught him how to play uno via google translate i explained to him that my date’s phone got stolen, prompting both the most threatening AND the most hilarious sentence ever typed into a translator:
“why did you have to promise that you won’t talk to russian people in in first place” because after a certain amount of alcohol i enter a stage of inebriation my friends have dubbed “russian hour” in which the duolingo trained part of my brain takes over and i sniff out russian speaking people like a bloodhound and exitedly talk to them until i am physically dragged away.
modern au! Abe gives Caleb a spare key to his house for emergencies. Caleb uses it to help Mary with housework. she’ll often come home to find her linen folded, or her dishes washed, or the floor scrubbed, and so on. after a while, Mary starts leaving snacks for him. Caleb will break in and see a little note in Mary’s penmanship reading “there’s pie on the kitchen counter and beer in the fridge! you’re an angel, Caleb! ❤, Mary”
eventually, Mary just asks Ben for a list of Caleb’s favourite beers
BENJAMIN: He’ll drink literally any alcoholic substance you give him.
MARY: You think I don’t know that?! I expect a list of at five different beers by the end of the day, do you understand?!
BENJAMIN: I understand! Christ, I’ll do whatever it takes to get you to stop glaring at me like that!
MARY: That’s better. Oh, and find out what his favourite kind of pie is, will you?
my favorite college memory was when one of my profs, right before graduation, sat all of us seniors in her class down and said, “do NOT drink a lot the night before graduation” and we were all like “yeah yeah no being late to the ceremony, no stupid behavior” and she goes, “NO not for any of THOSE reasons. there’s a bagpipe choir. do NOT be hungover for the bagpipe choir. you won’t like it.”
